1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of telecommunications. More particularly, the present invention relates to a subscriber associating a ring-tone media selection, based on a media genre, author, or title, to a calling party and sending the media selection or associated media selection indicator to a subscriber's communications device to play the associated ring-tone when the calling party calls.
2. Acronyms
The written description contains acronyms that refer to various telecommunications services, components and techniques, as well as features relating to the present invention. Although some of these acronyms are known, use of these acronyms is not strictly standardized in the art. For purposes of the written description, the acronyms are defined as follows:
Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN)
Central Office (CO)
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF)
Electronic Key Telephone System (EKTS)
Electronic Worldwide Switch Digital (EWSD)
Enhanced Media Resource Server (eMRS)
Extensible Markup Language (XML)
Flexible Ring-Tone (FlexRing)
Generic Data Interface (GDI)
Graphical User Interface (GUI)
Graphics Interchange Format (GIF)
HyperText Mark-Up Language (HTML)
HyperText Transfer Language Protocol (HTTP)
Intelligent Peripheral (IP)
Intelligent Service Control Point (ISCP)
International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG)
Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP)
Originating Basic Call State Model (OBCSM)
Outgoing Call Control (OCC)
Personal Computer (PC)
Personal Call Manager/Personal Communications Manager (PCM)
Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS)
Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)
Request For Comments (RFC)
Service Control Point (SCP)
Service Management System (SMS)
Service Node/Intelligent Peripheral (SN/IP)
Service Switching Point (SSP)
Session Initialization Protocol URL (SIP URL)
Signaling System 7 (SS7)
Signaling Transfer Point (STP)
Session Initialization Protocol (SIP)
Transaction Capabilities Application Part (TCAP)
Telephonic URL (TEL URL)
Termination Basic Call State Model (TBCSM)
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
Uniform Resource Identifier (URI)
Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
Uniform Resource Name (URN)
Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
World Wide Web (WWW)
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
3. Background Information
Currently, phone service subscribers are alerted to an incoming call by a ring generated by a subscribers telephone/customer premises equipment (CPE). CPE rings are typically generated by the CPE itself in response to a ring signal sent from the subscriber's local switch/service switching point (SSP). In such a scenario, the subscriber's local SSP generates ring signals and sends them to a subscriber's CPE when it receives an incoming call notification of a call destined for the subscriber. The subscriber's CPE rings upon receiving the ring signal from the local SSP. The ring is typically mechanically or electrically generated by the CPE itself.
In some CPE models, an internal bell installed during manufacture is rung in response to a ring signal from an SSP. In other CPE models, simple audio tones in the form of audio patterns form an audio ring. These types of CPEs are limited in that a user must answer the phone to determine who or what is calling the user.
To overcome this limitation, some CPEs include a caller ID display enabling a user to know who is calling by providing a caller ID display so the user can view the number of the entity calling prior to answering. This, however, is still limiting since the user typically has to be in view of the CPE caller ID display in order to find out who the caller is.
Mobile phone devices have overcome this limitation by including melodies as part of their initial programming at manufacture. Users of these devices associate a preprogrammed melody with a particular phone number; typically by a mobile phone menu system. When a mobile phone receives an incoming call, it uses the calling number provided by a caller ID service and checks to see if a melody within the mobile phone is associated with the calling number. If a match is present, the mobile phone plays the user programmed melody associated with the calling number to audibly alert the user of who or what is calling. Otherwise, a default melody or pattern is played to audibly alert the mobile phone user of the incoming call.
Each of the above devices is deficient in that they are very limiting as far as the selection of media playable, the number of devices that can be associated with a single programming, the complexity of media playable, and the ways of programming the associations of media to caller numbers.
The present invention overcomes the problems associated with the prior art, as described below.